Dotty Pritchard interviews a pair of homeless men for the Yolo County homeless count. Another count will take place this January.
Daily Democrat file photo

Woodland and Yolo County aren’t the only areas affected by an increasing homeless population. The entire West Coast has seen a surge in people living on the streets.

In fact, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released its annual Point in Time count Wednesday that showed the nation’s homeless population increased this year for the first time since 2010, driven by a surge in the number of people living on the streets in Los Angeles and other West Coast cities.

The report that showed nearly 554,000 homeless people across the country during local tallies conducted in January. That figure is up nearly 1 percent from 2016.

Of that total, 193,000 people had no access to nightly shelter and instead were staying in vehicles, tents, the streets and other places considered uninhabitable. The unsheltered figure is up by more than 9 percent compared to two years ago.

Increases are higher in several West Coast cities, where the explosion in homelessness has prompted at least 10 city and county governments to declare states of emergency since 2015.

City officials, homeless advocates and those living on the streets point to a main culprit: the region’s booming economy.

Beyond paycheck to paycheck

Rents have soared beyond affordability for many lower-wage workers who until just a few years ago could typically find a place to stay. Now, even a temporary setback can be enough to leave them out on the streets.

People and public officials in Woodland and other cities in Yolo County have seen more homeless on the streets, camping out in alleys or entryways to businesses, and even taking over vacant homes or outbuildings.

Woodland streets in particular have been filled with people towing their belongings with shopping carts — and often pets — from place to place, sparking concern from business owners and residents in general.

Popular gathering spots have been Freeman Park and along Main and Court streets, the parking area off Fourth and Court streets near Fourth & Hope, the railroad tracks along East Street and many other locations. Other parks citywide have also seen a rise in people sleeping out overnight.

The city launched a Housing First Pilot Project in April 2016 that involves homeless outreach, identifying temporary transitional housing units, and ultimately permanent supportive housing for the city’s chronically homeless population. The pilot project has a goal of placing 8-12 homeless individuals by the end of this year.

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But those numbers are insignificant in view of the seemingly growing homeless population, which might actually be fewer today than it was in 2015, according to a Yolo County Homeless Count done in January — from which the national figures were taken.

By the numbers

The local count showed there were 459 people countywide who were “unsheltered.” That broke down to 146 people in Davis, 174 in West Sacramento, 131 in Woodland and eight in Winters.

Nonetheless, efforts are proceeding in Woodland and across California to resolve a housing crisis, which is believed to be contributing to the increase in homelessness. Acting Tuesday night, the Woodland City Council began a program to increase “density” levels as well as alter zoning codes to provide for more in-fill housing in hopes that more apartments and moderate-priced homes will be constructed.

But the efforts such as increased housing density will be years away and business owners along with others are looking for more immediate solutions, such as so-called “tiny homes.”

Meanwhile, the level of intolerance for the homeless continues to grow in Woodland, which unveiled in November a multi-faceted proposal for low-income housing, city-sponsored “homeless outreach teams,” new or more restrictive ordinances and closer partnerships with agencies which provide services to those in need.

In September the city was told that during 2016, police spent at least 2,754 hours on transient/homeless related calls such as transient camps, panhandling complaints and general homeless complaints. All of these are citizen initiated and the number does not include the additional time officers may have taken to book property, write reports or collaborate with other agencies to get services for our transients.

Those numbers also don’t include any calls for those suffering from mental health issues, intoxication, urinating/defecating in public.

And from January through May this year, police spent 90 hours on the same transient related calls. Of the 904 total arrests made by police from January through May, 388 were related to either transients or the homeless.

It’s hoped the city will receive $680,000 as part of a $2.3 million “Partnership Health Grant” from the state, which would be used to help fund a Homeless Action Plan.

As envisioned, $580,000 of that $680,000 would be spent to acquire housing units under the Housing First Model, a pilot program of which was implemented by Yolo County in 2016 where those in need could be sheltered while they received mental health and career counseling. More money of that $680,000 would also be allocated for an “Opportunity Village” of so-called tiny houses on a still-undetermined site that has been looked at by local faith-based groups over the past year.

Affordable housing is believed to be the fundamental answer to at least alleviating some of the problems. Rents have soared beyond affordability for many lower-wage workers who until just a just few years ago could typically find a place to stay. Now, even a temporary setback can be enough to leave them out on the streets.

“A lot of people in America don’t realize they might be two checks, three checks, four checks away from being homeless,” said Thomas Butler Jr., who stays in a carefully organized tent near a freeway ramp in downtown Los Angeles.

Butler said he was in transitional housing — a type of program that prepares people for permanent homes — for a while but mostly has lived on the streets for the past couple of years.

The numbers in the report back up what many people in California, Oregon and Washington have been experiencing in their communities: encampments sprouting along freeways and rivers; local governments struggling to come up with money for long-term solutions; conflicts over whether to crack down on street camping and even feeding the homeless.

Homelessness affects health

The most alarming consequence of the West Coast homeless explosion is a deadly hepatitis A outbreak that has affected Los Angeles, Santa Cruz and San Diego, the popular tourist destination in a county where more than 5,600 people now live on the streets or in their cars. The disease is spread through a liver-damaging virus that lives in feces.

The outbreak prompted California officials to declare a state of emergency in October.

The HUD report underscores the severity of the problem along the West Coast.

That problem was averted in Woodland, where downtown business owners — and city officials — at one point were considering designating a “homeless camp” site such as a park, which would be open for people to camp in each night. The problem, however, was that increasing the proximity of people might also increase the spread of disease like hepatitis A. The idea was scrapped.

According to federal figures, overall homeless population in California, Oregon and Washington grew by 14 percent over the past two years, with the part of that population considered unsheltered climbing 23 percent to 108,000.

The homeless service area that includes most of Los Angeles County, the epicenter of the crisis, saw its total homeless count top 55,000 people, up by more than 13,000 from 2016. Four out of every five homeless individuals there are considered unsheltered, leaving tens of thousands of people with no place to sleep other than the streets or parks.

By comparison, while New York City’s homeless population grew to more than 76,000, only about 5 percent are considered unsheltered thanks to a system that can get people a cot under a roof immediately.

Since last year, voters in the city and Los Angeles County have passed a pair of tax-boosting ballot initiatives to raise an expected $4.7 billion over the next decade for affordable housing and services for the homeless. HUD Secretary Ben Carson praised the region for dealing with the issue and not relying solely on the federal government.

“We need to move a little bit away from the concept that only the government can solve the problem,” he said.

But Mayor Eric Garcetti said that insufficient federal funding for affordable housing and anti-homelessness programs are part of the reason for the city’s current crisis.

“Los Angeles’ homelessness crisis was not created in a vacuum, and it cannot be solved by L.A. alone,” Garcetti said in a statement.

Excluding the Los Angeles region, total homelessness nationwide would have been down by about 1.5 percent compared with 2016.

The California counties of Sacramento, and Alameda, which is home to Oakland, also had one-year increases of more than 1,000 homeless people.

In contrast, the HUD report showed a long-running decline in homelessness continuing in most other regions. Nationally, the overall homeless number was down by 13 percent since 2010 and the unsheltered number has dropped by 17 percent over that seven-year span, although some changes in methodology and definitions over the years can affect comparisons.

About the Author

Jim Smith is an award winning news and editorial writer and photographer who has been editor of The Daily Democrat since 1994. He has more than 37 years of professional newspaper experience as a reporter and editor for weekly and small daily newspapers. He has won numerous writing awards over his career as well as awards for photography and newspaper pagination as well as public service. Reach the author at jsmith@dailydemocrat.com
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